The local Indian rebar market has remained quiet during the past week with prices remaining at lower levels amid thin trading activity and reports of rising inventories among producers and market intermediaries, sources told SteelOrbis on Tuesday, October 20.
Rebar prices of integrated steel mills have been maintained at INR 37,450/mt ($510/mt) ex-stockyard, while secondary producers have kept prices unchanged at INR 30,700/mt ($418/mt) ex-stockyard, with market participants pointing out that, despite negligible trading and the near absence of fresh bookings for integrated producers, prices are near floor levels and price adjustments to push volumes are not viable for sellers anymore.
Reports in the market indicated that the tradable rebar price in southern region weakened slightly by INR 200/mt ($3/mt) to around INR 35,300/mt ($481/mt) ex-stockyard, with indications that inventories are rising at the prime producer in the region Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL).
In northern markets, secondary steel mills have maintained rebar prices at INR 30,000/mt ($409/mt) ex-stockyard, though few trades of any significant volume were reported by market intermediaries.
“In the housing sector, developers have a number of projects in the pipeline. But actual construction is yet to take off in the face of challenges of manpower availability and lending windows from financial institutions and this is keeping them away from committing raw material bookings,” a Mumbai-based real estate developer said.
“Rebar demand is derived from generally long gestation projects. Companies and investors are wary of long gestation projects owing to the shortage of funding availability and low returns. Since much of our sales are targeted to large project construction, any demand recession triggers mounting inventories,” an official at a private secondary rebar producer said.
$1 = INR 73.40